Well, I'm back. I haven't blogged in a while because I've had a hard time coming up with ideas. I don't know if you remember, but in my last update post, I said I was going to cover a discuss hot topic in the paleo community. That topic was pack-hunting theropods, but since that has already been discussed on Saurian way better than I could have, I decided to let that issue slip by. In my quest to find ways to spice up this blog, I have decided to start a series covering various aspects of the paleontology of Texas, my state of residence. Despite being a hotspot for fossils, I find that Texas tends to get overlooked for whatever reason, though that might just be my own bias. Regardless, I would like to share the paleontology from the Lone Star State with everybody, so here's my first entry in the series. And what better way to start off than with the State Dinosaur of Texas itself, Paluxysaurus jonesi (picture of mounted Paluxysaurus head and neck by yours truly).
Paluxysaurus is a sauropod from the Early Cretaceous (about late Aptian to early Albian) Twin Mountains Formation, discovered in Hood County. It is known from the remains of at least four individuals found in a bonebed on Jones Ranch. When the remains were first discovered, they were assigned to the problematic sauropod genus Pleurocoelus. It wasn't until 2007, when Peter Rose published a paper identifying the specimens as belonging to a new genus and species, Paluxysaurus jonesi, after the Paluxy River and Jones Ranch, where the fossils were found. His cladistic analysis found Paluxysaurus be a basal Titanosauriform, and likely a brachiosaurid.
As mentioned above, Paluxysaurus has the honor of carrying the title of Texas State Dinosaur. However, that title had previously been taken by Pleurocoelus, which over the years has been a sort of wastebasket taxon for sauropods found in Early Cretaceous deposits in Texas and other parts of North America. With the reclassification of the best material previously attributed to this genus, the situation was amended and Paluxysaurus was named the new State Dinosaur. Shortly after this a full skeleton of Paluxysaurus was mounted in the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History. Much of the mount is reconstructed due to the incompleteness of the original remains, but it is still a sight to behold.
References:
Rose, Peter J. (2007). A new titanosauriform sauropod (Dinosauria: Sauriscia) from the Early Cretaceous of central Texas and its phylogenetic relationships. Palaeontologia Electronica 10 (2).
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